Why Do Teams Pitch To Gonzalez?…

I am not going to use graphs, charts or any fancy advanced statistics. I am just going to use my degree from Common Sense University. My degree tells me that when a team only has 1 player who can beat you, don’t let him beat you. I think we would all agree with this thinking. However, 15 teams in the National League don’t subscribe to this. That is the only reason I have for teams pitching to Padres 1B, Adrian Gonzalez.

The only star on the Padres

Adrian Gonzalez currently is second in the NL in HR’s with 6 through the first 2 weeks of the season and is a star. Is he Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols or Manny Ramirez? No, he is not but he is already in the Paul Molitor Hall of Fame for “players if they played in NY, Boston, Chicago or LA they would be considered the greatest players ever.” He is the best player on one of the worst lineups in baseball. Gonzalez hits 4th in the Padre’s lineup and is surrounded by 7 other guys (pitcher not included) that are all average at best or below average major league hitters. Yet, teams still pitch to him. Why? Someone needs to explain to me why Gonzalez doesn’t get the Barry Bonds treatment? Why do teams continue to let Gonzalez beat them? It’s one thing if the Padres are losing and it doesn’t really matter what Gonzalez does like last year when he had 36 HR’s and 119 RBI on a last place team. But the Padres are winning right now and teams still pitch to him. It makes no sense.

At least Pujols has Ludwick, Arod will have Teixeira and Longoria has Pena. Adrian Gonzalez has Chase Headley. I will take my chances pitching to Headley in any situation rather than pitching to Gonzalez. Gonzalez is on pace for 111 walks this season. He really should be on pace for 162 walks and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why teams pitch to Gonzalez.